


and suddenly you became solid

by Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams



Series: Collaborations, Prompts and Requests [28]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Imaginary Friends, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, mentions of Tarsus IV, that aren't so imaginary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-06
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-24 07:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2573186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams/pseuds/Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>set-phasers-to-bacon: Jim Kirk has known Bones his whole life, but no one else can see or hear him. When Jim is young, Bones is just an “imaginary friend”, but as the years go by, Bones doesn’t fade away. When people start to think he’s crazy, Jim thinks it might be true and tells Bones to leave. He doesn’t see Bones again until he joins Starfleet.<br/>Only now Bones has some new skills and maybe Jim isn’t the only one that can see him… So is Bones really that imaginary or something else?</p>
            </blockquote>





	and suddenly you became solid

**Author's Note:**

> I may add more to this I don't know

“This is a stupid idea,” Bones remarks, a familiar scowl on his face. The wind ruffles his hair and the sun dances off of his darker complexion. “We’re going to crash and die.”

“Lighten up, Bones!” Jim grins, barely able to peer over the steering wheel as they speed across the desert, the car leaving behind a sandstorm of dust. “This is fun!”

“Only you would think that this is fun, kid.” Bones growled, running a hand down his face. He looks exasperated and flushed and Jim wonders if maybe popping the hood off was a bad idea. Almost as if reading his mind, Bones added: “Not only are we probably gonna crash and die, we’re also gonna end up with sunburn because of your godforsaken plans.”

“Bones,” Jim said dryly, ignoring the other male’s cry of “keep your goddamn eyes on the road!” to look at his friend. “I’ve known you for years and not once have you gotten sunburn.”

“That’s besides the poi--” Bones’ eyes went up to the mirror, widening slightly before he cursed. “We’re being chased by the police now, Jim. The police.”

Jim glanced back at the sound of a siren, fear beginning to creep down his spine at long last before he slammed his foot down onto the gas. This hadn’t been his intention when he’d first slipped outside to roll Frank’s car out of the garage. He’d just wanted to go for a ride, to get away from the stifling heat and encompassing walls. He wanted to be able to talk to Bones without Frank sneering and mocking at his “imaginary friend”. So he’d left and ran and ended up here, speeding towards a cliff with an official chasing after him.

Jim screamed, too late to hit the break and threw himself out the door, clawing and scrabbling at loose dust. Hands grabbed at his arms, pulling him up when he was in danger of falling and giving him the extra few inches he needed to get to safety. Jim scrambled upright, panting and filled with adrenaline as he stared down at what could have been his death.

“Stupid fuckin’ idiot,” Bones is snarling, eyes wild and fearful. “You don’t ever _think_ \--”

“Citizen, what is your name?” The official cuts in, and Jim stares down at the broken car so far down, his arms still warm where Bones had grabbed at him and flashed a grin at the infuriated male. “My name is James Tiberius Kirk.”

* * *

“Jim, get up!” A familiar voice hissed. Jim barely stirred.

“Jim!” Bones glanced frantically back at him, crouched down behind the pile of rubble he’d collapsed behind, exhausted and beaten.

“Give it up, Bones.” Jim whispers, his friend’s face finally swimming into focus. “We can’t keep running. In the end they’ll catch us, just like everyone else.”

“Bullshit!” Bones snarls, fierce and furious as he yanks at the smaller male’s arm, helping him to sit up through a groan. Most of Jim’s body flared through with pain in protest, exhaustion and hunger eating away at his last reserves of strength. “You’re not going to die here, Jim. Soon Starfleet will arrive and your mother will take you back to Earth where you can eat and sleep as much as you want. But right now you have to survive so get up dammit and _move_!”

Somehow, Jim managed to hobble to another set of shadows, another place to cower like an animal, leaning heavily against Bones all the while. Bones muttered praises and promises into his hair as they went, and when help finally arrived he smiled tiredly, staring down at Jim in relief. His whispered “told you so” barely reached Jim’s ears as he slipped into unconsciousness, safe with the knowledge that Bones was there and soon Starfleet would be as well.

* * *

“You need to stop talking about Bones, Jim.” His mother tells him one night after she’d overheard a one-sided conversation. “It’s not healthy anymore, not at your age.”

Jim frowned, the feel of Bones’ hand ruffling his hair still tingling through his scalp. “What’re you talking about?”

“You’re almost sixteen Jim, you can’t keep talking to imaginary friends.”

He stared up at his ceiling that night, frowning in dissatisfaction at the glow-in-the-dark constellations on his ceiling. “Bones?” Jim finally ventures.

“Hmm?” Bones grunted in response.

“If you’re imaginary why can I feel it when you touch me?”

Bones was quiet for a moment, rolling over to join him in staring up at his ceiling. “...I don’t know.” He finally muttered, sounding annoyed at the admittance.

Jim sighed, closing his eyes with a nod.

* * *

It’s on the day of his birthday, after a series of particularly painful insults that proves to be the breaking point for Jim.

“Don’t listen to those bastards, Jim, they’re just lacking the proper brain cells to--”

“I think you should leave.” Jim interrupts quietly, fists clenched and face turned away.

Bones blinked at him in shock. “What?”

“I said I think you should leave.” His voice was firmer now, harder, and Jim forced himself to be like steel, to be as cold as ice. “I don’t want to see you anymore, Bones.” Later he will think back to this and think about how much of it sounds like a pathetic teenage break-up, but for now all he can do is try to hide the tremors in his hands and the growing lump in his throat.

“Leave.” Bones echoes hollowly, without a biting insult or a twisting scowl.

“Yes.”

“Jim…” Bones reaches for his shoulder, and Jim flinches away when he sees it out of the corner of his eye. “Fine,” his voice hardens, and if Jim is ice Bones is fire, angry and raging. “Look me in the eyes and tell me to go and I will. But you better be damn sure cause I’m not comin’ back.”

Jim swallows, hates Bones a little for making him do this and raises his eyes, scared and shaking but determined because _god_ , he can’t be a freak anymore, not on top of a disappointment. “I want you to leave, Bones.” He says lowly, his stomach wrenching sickly. “I want… I want you to go.”

Bones nodded then, jaw clenching, and in a blink he was gone.

* * *

Jim spent weeks, months even, waiting and pleading at some points for Bones to reappear; he never did.

Half a year later Jim finally gave up on calling for his friend and closed his eyes to the stars. He was such a fucking idiot.

* * *

He’s twenty four, his face is still aching from the rather harsh beat down he’d suffered the previous night and the USS Kelvin model sat safely inside his leather jacket as he entered the shuttle that would take him to his future. Nearly everyone is clothed in red and he almost makes a face at that before catching himself, literally, against one of the the hard metal beams of the roof. Jim grimaced, forehead throbbing dully as he ducked underneath it, ignoring the laughing taunts from those that had seen and bypassing two of the males he’d had the misfortune to meet last night. He smirks, offering a wave and an “at ease, gentlemen” before moving past to an empty seat, buckling himself in with minimal difficulty. He’s eager and ready to go before a disturbance catches both his eyes and ears. Jim's world stops.

He’s not sure what’s said between the angry looking male standing in front of him and the just as angry looking woman, just that all of a sudden he’s sitting next to him and Jim’s heart is racing, because she just _talked_ to him, she _saw_ him and--

“I may throw up on you,” Bones growls, showing no sign of knowing him and Jim lets out a shuddering breath.

“I think these things are pretty safe,” he manages through his closing throat, aware that he probably looks like he saw a ghost and holy _fuck_ , he even gives him the same disgruntled look like Bones used to.

“Don’t pander to me, kid.” Bones huffs, shrugging into his own harness. “One crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare may crop up and cook us in our seats. And see if you’ll be sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you’re still relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is a disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.”

He’s just as overdramatic too, Jim realizes distantly. His mouth moves, voicing something, and then Bones is talking again, and slowly Jim’s ears come back to functioning in time to catche the other male’s last words.

“--all I’ve got left is my Bones.”

“Bones.” Jim echoes, breathless, panicked and ecstatic all at once. Leonard gives him a strange look, offering him a flask and Jim takes it thankfully, almost afraid to touch him.

He says it again, after he’s given the flask back. Their fingers brush and Bones still doesn’t disappear, nor does anyone seem to be looking at Jim as if he’s crazy. “Nice to meet you, Bones.”

If Leonard has any objections to the name he doesn’t voice them, and Jim spends the entire ride to Starfleet biting back a torrent of questions that want to be voiced. Instead he simply basks in the knowledge that all mysteries can be solved, and this Bones doesn’t seem to be inclined to disappear. He’ll have all the time in the world to figure things out.

**Author's Note:**

> http://my101fragiledreams.tumblr.com/


End file.
